Borrow a streaming service password from family– however you define it!–and dive in. There’s a lot of history to explore, and there’s never been a better time to do it.
While gay characters tended until much too recently to be one-dimensional, white, and doomed, in 2018 Barry Jenkins won a Best Picture Oscar telling the layered and hopeful story of a gay Black man in Moonlight. This first gay slasher film (as its ads proclaimed) has moments that cleverly combine and send up slasher movie conventions and gay stereotypes.
1982’s tentative Making Love derailed the careers of its two lead actors 2017’s Call Me By Your Name cemented its pair as movie stars. Front Cover is about openly gay New York City fashion stylist Ryan (Jake Choi), who rejects his traditional Asian upbringing. The range runs from the shoestring brilliance of The Watermelon Woman to the big-budget glitter-bomb that is Rocketman. We’ve come a ways in fifty years, from the self-loathing middle-aged men of The Boys In The Band to the peppy teens of Love, Simon. Or just google, but be careful what you find when Googling gay movies haha. The conditions are optimal for you to catch up on your queer cinema. For more great gay movie reviews try GAY CELLULOID and CINEMA QUEER. The few bars that have reopened are for the reckless and foolish, and let's be honest: there’s only so much dancing a person can do on Zoom. We’re stuck inside unless we’re marching for police reform. This year, the public events of LGBTQ Pride Month-much like sports, school, and life itself-are cancelled.
And if you can bear the crowds, you leave a Pride festival with a draft-beer buzz, an application for a rainbow-flag credit card, and a paper fan with Chelsea Handler’s face on it. Your bank, cable company and sandwich shop rush to remind you of their support for the LGBTQ+ community. The gay neighborhood thumps with house music. Under normal circumstances, June busts out all over with Pride Month parties and parades. The good news: this year you have time for some movies.